Hops

2102008

We have a multitude of animals and a baby, but our hops seemed to be too much responsibility.
Our 22 hops rhizomes planted in May produced no flowers at all. They barely even became plants. A good number of the plants died, with some getting dug up by animals. The total number of plants that will be around next year is uncertain.
We were really excited about doing the hops thing, and the possibility of working with local brewers. We failed this year to the extent that are hop plants produced nothing. We now have more experience on what not to do, how to better integrate our hops into our farm, and we are coceiving new ideas for their perpetuation in the following years.
Trellising and watering seem to be the most persistant problem. And we will be working throughout the winter to properly solve these issues. Some ingenuity and imagination are going to be needed to properly adapt these to our land.
Next year without a doubt there will be hops for beer.
And apples for cider.